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Note: No lip on dish but he keeps his gold. ....Panning Lesson...

I have a typical newbee question. As a general rule of thumb in order to maximize your metal detecting spend I am curious if it is better to obtain different coil sizes for your existing detector or purchase different detectors? I already own a PI and a VLF machine since the underlying technologies appear somewhat different. I want to know what everyone's advice is on the subject.

When I go out to do some serious detecting or panning for gold I always get a little hungry and grab the old jerky. I would like to see if anyone else does this and if so share your recipes so others might like it. I will pick up a nice ribeye and have it sliced about an 1/8 inch thick and smoke it for a few minutes on the grill. Then I will marinade it in a teriyaki sauce from my local restaurant over night. They have the best Chinese food around. Then place into the dehydrator and leave until done. I found this to be really good and fast with friends eating most of it. Remember to have plenty of water along to stay hydrated.

This is not a classified ad just a question. When I purchased my Equinox 800 they threw in a Free Minelab EQX15 coil . It's still sealed in the bag. I wanted a pinpointer but the shop I purchased everything at was sold out of all brands. Does this coil have enough value to trade for a pinpoint? Again I'm not selling or trading here just asking if it's worth looking into or offering it for a trade. The store said all he could do is next week he could do a even swap for a smaller coil I think a 8" . All in using now is the included EWX11 .

I have a dilemma I hope my fellow forum members could help me with. My daughter expressed her interest to get a detector for her and her boyfriend to use. My dilemma is I have not really followed the evolution of vlf detectors since the Whites MXT days. I still use my MXT and ML 4500 for nugget hunting. I would say I had better then average success with both detectors, but I simply have no idea on what to recommend for 2 -20 somethings on choosing a vlf detector. Their primary interest would be to hunt relics in the gold fields, coins & jewelry on the beaches and on occasion gold nuggets when visiting the Sierras foothills. I was looking at the Minelab Equinox 800 w/ wireless headphones, Nokta Legend as far as those I have NO idea. They are pretty savvy with tech, I would imagine wireless headphones are a must and a machine simple to learn for first time owners. I am open for suggestions..appreciate the help fellas.

This Tailgate Talk brings us to the Australian Outback with Detector Prospector, Steve Herschbach. Steve shares his tips and the success he has had over his 50 years of gold prospecting. Everything said in the video makes a lot of sense, totally agree. I had the help from JW that gave me the shortcut to finding gold and giving me the confidence. A huge shortcut to success. That's where the training courses would help people too I guess. The old saying the first one is the hardest is really true.

Does anyone here hunt with a pace maker installed. Dr wants me to get a pace maker, but I want to know if I would need to quit detecting. Any input would be great to hear. Thanks.

I read an opinion article in NYTimes about challenges in higher education (college specifically) that I think has relevence here, at least to some. [Here's a link to the article, included mostly for ethical reasons, but also in case anyone wants to see the entire thing. Author's name is Jonathan Malesic and he's a college instructor (professor?).] Now I quote: (A) big obstacle to the willingness to learn is the urge to present yourself as always already informed. The philosopher Jonathan Lear calls this attitude knowingness. He regards it as a sickness that stands in the way of gaining genuine knowledge. It is “as though there is too much anxiety involved in simply asking a question and waiting for the world to answer,” he writes. (And Later:) Every semester during my years teaching (subject), students would tell me on the first day of class that they knew they would get an A, because they’d already had 12 years of (classes in that subject). But often enough, they’d get a C. Their assumptions about the subject matter kept them from learning the more critical approach to the subject I was trying to teach. Knowingness is a danger especially for talented students who have been rewarded for always having the right answer. First off, metal detecting isn't a college class. Some people use it as a temporary escape from whatever (job, family commitments, etc.) and for the most part I see nothing wrong with that. Others (myself included) need more. I enjoy the "thrill of the find" as well as the broader "thrill of the chase". But those don't come on every hunt and even on the best hunts only once or if real lucky, twice per hour. My brain wants other challenges and trying to figure out what's going on -- why those noises and VDI's? -- is also valuable for me in both the short term and long term. So the above excerpt is relevant to me and hopefully some of you. I'm the first to admit I get in a rut, often. As an example, yesterday I was able to get in my first hunt in since 2nd of December. I had three goals: 1) choose a site with a slope I could work since we've had a lot of precipitation recently and the ground is mostly saturated, 2) choose a site that might help decide if my upcoming Manticore purchase potentially leads to finds the Eqx 800 either couldn't get or (more likely) couldn't recognize as targets in my desirable range, 3) choose a site that had potential of still a few good finds, even though I've searched it recently. I also hoped it would have some ferrous trash because that always seems to be a contributor in making a site/detector difficult. Lastly, I wanted to detect an area which I previously hunted in one direction, now planning on hitting it from more/less 90 degrees different direction with the thought I might be able to find desirable targets I previously missed. I decided to try a bit outside-the-box on my settings. I stayed with Park 1, 5 tones (all VDI's accepted), gain = 22 but instead of my standard Recovery Speed (RS) = 4 I went with 5. (Oh, I'm such an adventurer! 😆) I also tried Iron Bias F2=6 (instead of my usual F2 = 0). In addition I made it a point to listen as carefully as possible to the audio signals, both in search mode but aslo in pinpoint mode. Well, did I stick to my plan? I lasted all of maybe 10 minutes in RS = 5 before reverting to my comfort level of 4. And I stayed with the non-zero Iron Bias level for even a shorter time! My rationalization was that for this site (not overly trashy) those settings work fine, as previous hunts had proven. But was I right? 🤷‍♂️ Or was I closing my mind? I did spend mental effort listening carefully to the sounds, and although I have much to learn there, felt I made some progress. I've seen an evolution in thought processes even in the short time (7+ years now) I've been on this site. I've read some books written a couple or more decades ago with advice, sometimes almost dogmatically stated, about how to set up detectors as well as how to approach a particular hunt. Many of those have been questioned if not completely refuted by some (I'll say as many as a dozen) posters here. That takes both an open mind but also courage. I hope to emulate that when I get my Manticore -- keep an open mind and don't be afraid of stepping outside my own box as well as the box of conventional wisdom. (BTW, in case you were wondering, I found a 6"-7" deep 1946 -- common date -- Wheatie that I had missed previously. Successful 3 hour hunt even not counting the new knowledge. 😁)

Now that I have aftermarket coils, an EMI fix to allow me to use my speaker and a nice working GPX 6000 there was just one more thing bugging me, the shaft twist. Mine started off good, I was there gloating how mine doesn't twist but that didn't last long, a few times out looking for gold and it was twisting like Chubby Checker with a slight breeze. A while ago GotAU came up with an idea of putting little o-rings in there and he said it worked for him, such a simple cheap solution. I kept meaning to try it and never got around to it, mainly because I had to remember to buy some o-rings and always forgot. Well, I finally got around to it, I bought some and it appears to have worked well, my shaft no longer needs over tightened to make it secure. It got to the point the only way I could prevent it from twisting was to use something like vice grips to tighten it up which I figured would end up breaking it in no time. So, now I've done GotAU's recommended fix and I can say so far it's working fine. For such a cheap price and simple solution it's worth giving it a shot for anyone having a twisting shaft. I didn't bother to measure my shaft, I just bought a multi pack for a couple of bucks You just dismantle the shaft, slide the little O-ring up over the shaft to the position you want to tighten up your shaft then tighten it up, couldn't be more simple. Slide it up over the shaft and into position, a lot further back than this photo obviously. I used ones that were quite small, they were smaller than the shaft but stretched over it. So far so good, thanks GotAU for the great idea, you should be a shaft engineer at Minelab, although you might be over-qualified for the job. The only downside is it's slightly slower to shrink it down as you have to move the o-ring by hand, maybe if I used a looser fitting one I wouldn't need to do that, I'll give it a try sometime, at the moment I'm just happy it's not twisting.

I decided to work a patch near some power lines today and was reluctant to use the larger DD coil even though it works great here at eliminating most EMI interference. Usually I always run the 6000 with the threshold on for hearing the fainter signals better, but today I decided to keep the 9" mono coil on it and lowering the sensitivity to manual 5 and also turning off the threshold. This resulted in no EMI interference using the mono coil. The sensitivity was still fairly good and I was picking up the little bits pretty good. This also allowed me to turn the threshold back on when moving farther away from the power lines without doing several coil swaps throughout the day.

I sure do!!! I'm probably spelling his name wrong but, Great Britain's Jim Fiveash built custom detector's that was among the first to successfully hunt in the coke, coal, & iron debris of the Thames River shoreline. His last three improved versions of The Red Heat XD 17s. Were sent to America. For myself & two friends. Jim was a brilliant mind, that was dying of cancer while completing our machines. It took Jim a long time to complete our three custom built detectors, they were improved version of his legendary XD-17. Jim died shortly after we received our machines. He never even got a full report of there amazing performance! These machines were way ahead of there time, with great depth, separation, lightening fast retune speed & telescoping rod deployment. I foolishly sold my Red Heat 17+ not truly considering the brilliant cutting edge technology, workmanship & shear artwork that Jim had poured his final days into. Making these machines for 3 American fans of his work. Somewhere in America, there is 3 very extra special Red Heat Detector's!!! I hope they're in good hands & still detecting relics!!! I don't even have a picture of them. RIP Jim!!!

I’ve booked a trip for a week in July at AK/AU Gold Camp in Nome. They do rent Metal detectors and they’re part of the package. Other than the Gold Monster 1000 and Nox 800, I’m not too familiar with the other Minelab products they might have available. I was thinking about taking my Garrett Axiom. I have two concerns. First, what’s the best way to get it there? I’ve heard that Lithium batteries should not ride in an unpressurized area like a cargo hold. I suppose I could carry it on in the convenient backpack everything fits in. Second, how will it handle the Alaskan ground? I’ve heard that VLF machines work better there. Thanks in advance!

Hello I need a battery cover for a Garett Hunter 7. Any ideas?

Ethan is looking for a second hand detector, as someone who's never bought a new vehicle in my life I get it. But there are certain things I may not buy second hand, detectors may be one of them. If I was buying a detector that I was completely familiar with then yes I would, but what happens when you have never used the machine before. There are many factors to consider here, The amount of money involved is one I guess, second hand GPZ 7000's and GPX 6000's are holding their value pretty well in Australia, is the saving worth the risk especially when you consider that if you haven't used the detector how do you know if it's working properly. If you are looking for older or cheaper machines then this becomes less important. As some one who may consider buying an expensive P.I. machine secondhand, I would like to hear how others have approached this and how many would never buy a used machine and why ?

I would like Everyone's thought on this. My Father is planning to buy a gold detector from a brand called AKS specifically AKS Multi GFIS 3d. I found the brand not very trusting cause it has few reviews and they are not very active in their official YouTube channel. Did anyone knew about this brand?

Hey guys, I was recently contacted by a local person with a personal treasure story. Apparently this woman's ex-boyfriend buried a box with several gold bars in their back yard. It was meant to be a surprise for her but he tragically died in a car crash and didn't get the opportunity to present her with it. She learned of this recently after his death. She knows which property it's located on but the area is 1/4 acre in size and she figures it's buried 4-6 feet deep. There are apparently several gold bars the sized of Hershey bars. There is supposed to be other treasures but she doesn't know what those are. She doesn't know what kind of container this stuff is buried in. If it was metal we could find it pretty easily with a magnetometer but she's not sure. What technologies are available to detect at that depth? I'm not aware of any detectors that can reliably go that deep.

I didn't know where else to put this but I thought I would try here but if it needs to be moved Steve go for it. A little background, I am in no way affiliated with this company other than I bought one of these to help relieve my elbow pain. In addition to detecting I coach golf, do a lot of push-ups/pull-ups in my fitness routine and drag my scoop behind me when on the beach. My elbows always used to hurt and there were times I chose not to detect as my tendinitis was just to painful. I found armaid through a fitness friend and tried it out and bingo, it has helped to alleviate the pain I'd get from swinging my detector or anything else physical using my arms. As we age things don't quite work as they used to and pain shows up more often in our daily lives. When I started to see relief I thought this was too good not to share with the forum at DP as I'm sure many others suffer from elbow tendinitis as well as painful wrists and fingers so here is the website. www.armaid.com They have a bunch of videos that show you how to use it so it's pretty easy to get started. Again I have zero interest in the company and my only reason for sharing it here is that it might be able to help someone eliminate or lessen their arm pain so they can detect more. I tried to attach a picture but I ran into problems so I apologize for that.

as the title reads what do you do when you are detecting an area that is so heavy in Magnetite that none of your detector work the area I am in detecting for gold is this way, the solution I have come up with is to fill five gallon buckets with dirt haul them back home and run them through a small sluice, like the gold fox mini monster, the area has a layer of magnetite down anywhere from 1-5 inches, when you drag a 2 inch rare earth magnet through it the magnet comes back looking like a tennis ball,it is like trying to detect over a iron plate, have found no detector as of yet that will see much deeper the 3-6 inches and the 6 inches is exaggerating it LOL, and that includes a pulse detector that I just recently sold, just thought I would pose this question and get some opinions from the more experienced gold detectorist, every area I have detected here where I live is like this, I have tried the Legend which when you activate the mineralization meter on the Legend it literally pegs the iron particle side of the meter at 10 bars the salt side is reading 3-5 bars, GM 1000, Xterra 705, Whites TDI, Simplex Plus as well as a few others, nothing seems to work, so what do you all do when you encounter an area like I described Thanks for reading

I'm not new to prospecting or metal detectors but I am new to owning a PI machine I've used the gpz a lot but never owned a PI so now I have a Whites TDI and I'm wondering rather to turn my thershold all the way down so I only hear targets or to hunt with a threshold like I see my cousin do with his gpz 7000? Any positives or negatives. I'm not a fan of bees in my head but I will keep it if I get say better depth.

About 2 months ago, I purchased a Nox 800, brand new / open box, for a little over $700. (about a $200 savings) The online seller had 3 or 4 units at that time, and they all sold fast. Before I purchased it, I emailed the seller, and was told it would have the FULL 3 year warranty. So i pulled the trigger, and it arrived a few days latter. Still had the shipping plastic on the keypad, and the screen protectors and cables were unopened. It looked brand spanking new, minus the open box description. I immediantly contacted Minelab reguarding a warranty. Gave them the serial number and registered the warranty I even called the service center, and was assured, that I had a 3 year warranty. Its been a great detector, and Ive certainly put it through its paces over the last few months. It has rewarded me very well, with a large amount of clad, small amount of silver, and 1 gold ring! Ive followed the same seller since then, and watched them acquire and sell yet another batch of similar nox 800 units (new/open box). I wonder where or how, they are able to get ahold of these open boxed machines, that have never had the warranty initiated. Any thoughts?

A friend of mine lost her gold ring playing softball. It was a family heirloom and she thinks it flew off when she threw a softball. We are sitting 2 weeks since the loss and the field has limited access so it’s unlikely that anyone has detected since the loss. We have a general idea of where on the field it was lost. I have a 600 and have only used it a few times in my yard. Are there any recommendations as to which program to run and tweaks that will allow me to cover the field quicker and hone in on a woman’s gold engagement-style ring? I also have a Fisher f2 and f44 with a lot of hours. So I guess the other question is would I be better off falling back on my f44? (But the Equinox is just so fun!) Thanks in advance, Dave

The Chinese manufacturers are not only doing clones they're doing mash ups combining features of one model in the look of another. This one is pretty interesting, it looks like a GPZ, combined with a CTX 3030, combined with a normal VLF for functionality and coil design, and includes a full colour touch screen. I like the GPX 4500/5000 arm cuff on a GPZ body. 🙂 It truly is a shame they don't use their talents to make their own detectors, you would think with the clones they can pop out and the skills that they must have to do them they could sit down and build a detector of their own and start a genuine manufacturing company for detectors rather than using other companies ideas. One thing they did do right that Minelab could learn from is getting rid of the weak CTX coil ears and using the GPZ 7000 coil mounting ears on a CTX shaft.

Hello there, long time forum observer here and thank you to Mr Hershback for this great website. I'm wondering if detectorist really need to have maybe a small advantage in performance and features on high end detector vs the mid range detectors? or even maybe some of the beginner detectors. As in my conclusion by observing information's from this forum (since i didn't have the resources to test out by myself) there are very small difference in performance between the legend, equinox and deus 2. I guess what I'm asking is where/in which scenario the high end detector shines from all other detector to justify the price. Thank you for reading and sorry for my bad English. Happy hunting wherever you at.

Looking for a gold prospecting club in Gold Beach Oregon or someone who knows about Gold Beach prospecting on the beach

Anyone have any good fortune around the southern Michigan area? There was a gent on YouTube talking about finding baby nuggets near the Grand Rapids creeks. I'm hoping to make a trek soon before it gets too cold, and do some testing, God willing.